[zsionakides]

Looks like a mish mash of different parts on that bike. Wouldn’t surprise me if some of those were already fatigued and not able to take the forces of what looks like a homebrew moped.

[zsionakides]

@ChristoB50 209289 wrote:

Nice!
Related: Just resuming some biking recently after a long break… 4MRT heading east, as you emerge from passing under 395; where the concrete trail portion meets asphalt, the seam there had been a bit of a hard jolt. Then just a few dozen yards further, the asphalt joins to concrete again in order to go under W. Glebe; another bad joint…
So I was excited to spot fresh, dark asphalt ahead as I approached each one of the transitions in turn — but wow, the new asphalt “makeshift fix” is worse than what it replaced!! They are practically speed-bumps now, and I swear, they jolt the bike harder than the old bad-seam did!

Rode over that yesterday on 4MR with 650b tires and that fix is awful. I felt the jolt on that bike and can’t imagine how harsh it would be on the road bike.

I’m really puzzled why that area can’t be fixed when there are numerous concrete to asphalt transitions all over the place without issue.

[zsionakides]

@kwarkentien 203117 wrote:

Perhaps I’m missing something here but I rode through here a week ago and I thought it did exactly what it was supposed to do: separate and slow traffic through this intersection. I had no trouble navigating it and didn’t find it awkward or troublesome. You shouldn’t be flying through there in either direction as (1) it’s a blind intersection; and (2) it’s within the park and adjacent to areas where children and families are gathering. I think this is much ado about nothing. But I suppose only time will tell.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Try navigating it on a tandem or long tail with kids in the back, then see how you feel about it.

[zsionakides]

@Judd 203024 wrote:

I’ll check it out sometime this week and check with the Park to determine the intent of its placement and see if we can adjust. There are a few places on the trail that have posts or barrels up right now and I believe the intention of all of them are short term interventions to for places where people may inadvertently bike off trail. If you’re talking about the bridge pictured below, it’s possible that it’s placed as part of the engineering work being done this week to replace Bridge 12.

The barrels are being used where there are roots coming through and the trail is unsafe, which is fine. This is big flex posts in the center of each end of the bridge, which seem to be for deterring usage of the bridges. The problem is that the bridge isn’t that wide to begin with and there are sharp turns entering/exiting the south side making it less safe to bike through there.

[zsionakides]

I hadn’t been down on the southern part of the MVT in a few months, but one of the bridges just north of Ft Hunt now has orange flex(?) posts at both ends of the bridge. This is a bad treatment in general, but going northbound it’s challenging to navigate around due to the curve there and I couldn’t imagine trying to do it on a longer bike (tandem, longtail).

[zsionakides]

Just pave over the center circle and leave the yield signs at each entry point. There isn’t so much traffic that a roundabout is needed to manage traffic flow – 95% of the time I travel through there isn’t any traffic as opposed to say the MVT/4MR intersection. The main safety issue was the blind turn coming off the Custis trail, but that is fixed by moving the intersection point further out. As long as cyclists aren’t flying through there, everyone can navigate by basic rules of the road and don’t need a circle to “improve” the situation.

[zsionakides]

@Starduster 202610 wrote:

From Friday of last week- The W&OD bridge over Leesburg Pike is *almost* open. I did have to deal with an annoying detour while they finish up. [ATTACH=CONFIG]21752[/ATTACH]

This picture? This…route? Gee, what would #dirt do? (P.S. You are loved…) [ATTACH=CONFIG]21753[/ATTACH]

My hope is that’s a stub out for the missing segment of the W&OD or even a Custis extension.

[zsionakides]

@ursus 202403 wrote:

Another W&OD detour https://twitter.com/WODTrail/status/1310619472672284672

Starting on or around October 5th, Dominion Energy will begin performing major line work along the trail between Sandburg St and Gallows Rd in the Dunn Loring area. The construction is expected to continue well into next year and will require a detour of the trail onto Iliff Dr.

I just went through here this past weekend and this detour really frustrates me. The detour path is actually really good, clearly separated from traffic with dense flex posts, and properly marked. If this can be put down for a utility project in little time without complaint, I can’t understand why this can’t be built on every road to this standard where right of way exists. Seriously, this detour shows how much the development process is broken and takes way too long.

[zsionakides]

Not sure that Great Falls is such a great detour. Lincoln is much wider though also has a good amount of traffic.

I’m wondering why they couldn’t do a mulch path or something similar.

[zsionakides]

@ursus 202408 wrote:

Did they also build an extension along Gallows? That seems more important than Sandburg. I can see from the tweet that they have made a bike lane along Iliff and put every bollard in northern VA to use. :rolleyes:

Edit: Never mind. It is all explained here https://www.novaparks.com/parks/washington-and-old-dominion-railroad-regional-park/updates/wod-trail-detour-sandburg-st-to.

It would be nice if some of these “temporary” trails could just be made permanent, even if they are simply connectors into the W&OD in the future.

[zsionakides]

@Judd 202334 wrote:

Just read something last night that said it’s a 9% grade on both sides of the bridge. Can’t imagine managing that with a kid on a single speed bike.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s a short climb and much easier than the climb at the end of the trail near Mt Vernon. I’ve done it with kids in tow, though I couldn’t imagine doing that with a single speed.

[zsionakides]

@DanB 202319 wrote:

When you see the incredible number of bridges being built along I-66, it couldn’t be that hard to get a flyover built for the northbound lane of the MVT. Could it? [emoji848]

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Yes, but this doesn’t solve the 4MR to southbound MVT contact point. You’ll need a full overpass and clover leaf to handle both.

[zsionakides]

After seeing this, I’d prefer they just go back to the T intersection with the stop sign on the Custis trail part. Moving the intersection away from the overpass fixed the sight line problem, but adding this circle in creates a whole new set of problems that didn’t exist before. This isn’t really a high traffic location that benefits from such a traffic device.

[zsionakides]

Went through eastbound this morning and coming out of the circle to the hill requires a pretty sharp turn. If someone cut the wrong way across the circle it’d be hard to see them unless you looked back for them.

I think the intent here was good, but I can bet that favored paths will involve cutting the circle eastbound the way it’s situated.

[zsionakides]

@consularrider 202273 wrote:

There’s been the W&OD mm0 traffic circle forever, hardly anyone follows traffic circle etiquette there.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21674[/ATTACH]

I had no idea that was actually supposed to be a traffic circle. I thought it was just for decoration.

That being said I rode through this new traffic circle on the Custis trail yesterday and can pretty much guarantee people going eastbound will cut the circle if it’s open.

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